Religion & Law

We may be used to them, but provocative ads are spiritually harmful

Posted on January 04, 2011
AISH.com / The Jewish Ethicist: "These ads are considered acceptable in modern society because imagination is considered something harmless. Fantasizing about forbidden activities is generally considered benign as long as it is not translated into action...

MO: St. Joseph City Council may rescind funeral protest law

Posted on January 04, 2011
News-Press Now: "The St. Joseph City Council could soon pull a controversial law off the books. The council will decide next Monday whether to repeal its funeral protest ordinance."

Mayor Bloomberg?s office spearheaded drive for Ground Zero mosque, new docs show

Posted on January 04, 2011
Big Government: "In July 2010, Mayor Bloomberg outrageously told reporters it was 'un-American' to investigate the individuals behind the Ground Zero Mosque. Now we know why he wanted no one to look into the controversy. Judicial Watch just obtained a new batch of documents from New York City Mayor Bloomberg?s office that show his office was instrumental in helping radical anti-American Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, his wife Daisy Khan and their partner Sharif el-Gamal obtain approval for a 13-story massive mosque and 'community center' to be built in the shadow of Ground Zero, the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks...

Europe ups security for Copts amid online threats

Posted on January 04, 2011
Boston.com (AP): "Police in France, Germany, the Netherlands and other countries have increased surveillance of Orthodox Coptic Christian churches. In Italy, Copts have asked for special protection. And in Chatenay-Malabry, just outside Paris, metal barricades surround the church of St...

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NH: Outside groups gird for marriage fight

Posted on January 04, 2011
Concord Monitor: "The Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., has vowed to do 'whatever it takes' to repeal gay marriage in New Hampshire. Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders in Boston is promising to do 'whatever it takes' to stop them...

Abusive priest suits force Archdiocese of Milwaukee to file for bankruptcy

Posted on January 04, 2011
CNN: "The Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee is filing for bankruptcy protection, it announced Tuesday, citing the cost of lawsuits filed against priests by victims of sexual abuse."

UK: Women who want to be housewives won?t admit it, says new report

Posted on January 04, 2011
Iona Institute: "After decades of gender equality campaigning many women now find it hard to admit that they would rather be housewife than have a successful career of their own, according to Dr Catherine Hakim of the London School of Economics . . . An analysis of figures for Britain shows that in 1949, 20 per cent of women married husbands with significantly higher levels of education than their own, but by the late 1990s, this had almost doubled to 38 per cent...

Australia?s Cardinal Pell blasts Christian politicians who defy Church teaching

Posted on January 04, 2011
LifeSiteNews: "In a short interview with the Herald Sun on January 2, Cardinal George Pell called on Catholic politicians to uphold Christian teachings, and blasted MPs who 'fly under the Christian or Captain Catholic flag' but 'blithely disregard Christian perspectives' when facing a vote on moral issues in parliament...

New UN maternal health commission may promote abortion

Posted on January 04, 2011
LifeNews: "Last week the UN announced the members of a new commission to enforce its guidelines on women?s and children?s health . . . If the make up of the commission and the website launching it are any indication, it will [include abortion promotion]...

Pro-life counselor arrested in Milwaukee pleads not guilty

Posted on January 04, 2011
LifeSiteNews: "The plea was entered in Milwaukee municipal court by lawyers with the Thomas More Society. James Marcou, a veteran sidewalk counselor, was charged in August after two clinic escorts at the Affiliated Women?s Heath Center claimed he was being disorderly and getting in their way outside the clinic...

States prepare ?fetal pain? bills, other measures

Posted on January 04, 2011
Medical News Today: "In sessions beginning this month, lawmakers in several states plan offer bills that would affect abortion care and other reproductive health services. Summaries appear below."

MD: Lawmakers, regulators look at options to tighten oversight of abortion providers

Posted on January 04, 2011
Baltimore Sun: "The case of a New Jersey doctor found to be illegally providing abortions in Maryland last year is prompting lawmakers and regulators to consider toughening requirements for abortion providers in the state."

UK: ?We can learn something from rich girls? abortions?

Posted on January 04, 2011
The Stir: "In news that is unlikely to surprise much of anyone, a recent UK study has shown that girls from wealthier families are more likely to terminate than girls from poorer ones. Did we really need a study to tell us that?"

Calif. welfare code: Homosexuality inborn

Posted on January 04, 2011
OneNewsNow: "Beginning this New Year, California will implement AB 2199 and ultimately strike down the requirement on the State Department of Mental Health to conduct research on the 'causes and cures of homosexuality.' According to Veronica Esqueda, a renal social worker in Los Angeles, the measure will portray alternate lifestyles as acceptable and normal...

?In isolated Utah city, new clubs for gay students?

Posted on January 03, 2011
New York Times: "[A]t three local high schools here this fall, dozens of gay students and their supporters finally convened the first Gay-Straight Alliances in the history of this conservative, largely Mormon city. It was a turning point here and for the state, where administrators, teachers and even the Legislature have tried for years to block support groups for gay youths, calling them everything from inappropriate to immoral...

On eve of new Congress, GOP struggles with rift over social issues

Posted on January 03, 2011
Christian Science Monitor: "This year also saw a low profile for social conservative groups as Congress debated the repeal of 'don?t ask, don?t tell.' The Senate?s decision to allow openly gay service members in the armed forces ? a vote that eight Republicans backed ? sent a signal that the influence of social conservative groups on Capitol Hill is slipping...

Egypt on high alert ahead of Coptic Christmas

Posted on January 03, 2011
Yahoo (AFP): "Egypt was on high alert on Monday ahead of the Coptic Christmas holiday following a New Year's Day church bombing that killed 21 people, as investigators raced to identify those behind the attack."

No way out of marriage in Malta

Posted on January 03, 2011
Danna Harman writing in The Huffington Post: "In Malta, divorce is illegal . . . For the vast majority of those separating Maltese couples, for whom neither an annulment or a foreign divorce is an option, the solution is to avoid the extra headache, heartache and expense and simply separate unofficially...

Marriage, remarriage, and feminism

Posted on January 03, 2011
Emily V. Gordon writing at The Huffington Post: "When I started talking to friends about leaving my marriage, they would ask about how entangled our lives were, and I realized that they weren't entangled... at all. Instead of feeling proud, I was horrified...

Iowa officials should forget about ousting justices; pass constitutional amend. instead

Posted on January 03, 2011
Globe Gazette: "My issue with all of this is not being for or against same-sex marriages. It's with people who stomp on the Constitution and on state law when they don't get their way."

CA: ?Lambda Legal urges Governor-Elect Brown to appoint unbiased, diverse judges?

Posted on January 03, 2011
Lambda Legal: "Lambda Legal has sent a letter to Governor-Elect Jerry Brown urging him to scrutinize closely the judicial philosophies of those he appoints as state court judges and to add greater diversity to the bench."

May American courts appoint only Muslim arbitrators, pursuant to an arbitration agreement?

Posted on January 03, 2011
Eugene Volokh writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: "That's the issue lurking in In re Aramco Servs. Co., now on appeal to the Texas Supreme Court . . . The contract provided that it was to be interpreted under Saudi law, and arbitrated under Saudi arbitration rules and regulations...

Next step after DADT repeal: ?Equal rights for gay service members?

Posted on January 03, 2011
Chris Patti writes at the Washington Post: "Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates will now try to fashion a policy that will filter down to all of us in the services. That policy needs to set a standard for the ethical and equitable treatment of all service members, regardless of their sexuality...

DC Examiner: America needs a new national debate on the Constitution

Posted on January 03, 2011
Washington Examiner: "Comparing the words of the Constitution to the actions of our leaders in recent years will surely make clear the enduring wisdom of James Madison's warning that 'there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations...

Ciudad Juarez residents flee Mexico?s ?dying city?

Posted on January 03, 2011
Townhall: "No one knows how many residents have left the city of 1.4 million since a turf battle over border drug corridors unleashed an unprecedented wave of cartel murders and mayhem. Business leaders, citing government tax information, say the exodus could number 110,000, while a municipal group and local university say it's closer to 230,000...

Democrat regrets language in memo on ?death panels? that reignited debate

Posted on January 03, 2011
The Hill: "Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) is distancing himself from a memo sent by his office that urged health reform advocates not to advertise new end-of-life counseling regulations to avoid reviving talk of 'death panels.'"

Vermont, Montana lead battles over assisted suicide in 2011

Posted on January 03, 2011
LifeNews: "Vermont and Montana will form ground zero for the debate over assisted suicide in 2011 as legislatures in both states are expected to tackle bills related to the subject."

Nevada Supreme Court dismisses Personhood Amendment appeal as moot

Posted on January 03, 2011
"The Nevada Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by a group seeking a constitutional amendment to ban abortions. The court rejected the arguments of Personhood Nevada, which wanted a question on the election ballot this past November."

Cambridge University Press: Marketing Intelligent Design

Posted on January 03, 2011
Marketing Intelligent Design Law and the Creationist Agenda Frank S. Ravitch, Michigan State University "Recently a new battle has emerged between science and religion. The battle has focused on intelligent design (ID) and the numerous legal, philosophical, and educational concerns surrounding it...

Mike Adams: Does Fort Worth ever cross your mind?

Posted on January 03, 2011
Mike Adams writing at Townhall: "Those of us who are conservative Christians are apt to blame the problems of the world on others. When we aren?t blaming Obama specifically, we are blaming socialism and socialists generally. But none of these things are really problems...

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